Task Keeps Braggs Working

VOLUSIA SPORTS

The Ex-nfl Player Is `Relentless' As He Strives To Turn Around Pine Ridge Football.

July 30, 2004|By Buddy Collings, Sentinel Staff Writer

DELTONA -- By 10 in the morning, the heat was already stifling on the grassy field in front of Pine Ridge High School. But 10-year-old Matthew Swigart thought it was pretty cool that he was being taught football by a former NFL player.

In a time frame where most high school football coaches are either gearing up for the Aug. 9 kickoff for preseason practice or grabbing a couple of final days of vacation, new Pine Ridge Coach Stephen Braggs spent last week coordinating one of his All-Pro Strategies Football Camps in Houston, then rushed back to Deltona to host another one at Pine Ridge this week.

Down time isn't on the agenda any time soon for Braggs, who played seven seasons with Cleveland and Miami in the NFL. He continues to run his camps and non-profit Stephen Braggs Youth Foundation even as he took on the challenge of energizing a Pine Ridge program that has a 20-50 record since it last had a winning season in 1996.

"He's like the Energizer bunny on steroids," said Pine Ridge Athletic Director Dan Comeau, who hired Braggs last February. "His energy is relentless. He just keeps going."

Since he took the job before spring practice, Braggs has taken Panthers players to an NFL Europe training camp in Tampa and to a motivational speech by former Pittsburgh Steelers star Franco Harris, coordinated a concession-stand fund-raiser at the Pepsi 400 races in Daytona Beach, conducted a full-contact NFL Player Development camp, directed an offseason training program that includes beach runs, and drafted players to be counselors for his youth camps.

"We're in the trenches doing things," said Braggs, who brought another former NFL player, Clarence Weathers, aboard as offensive coordinator. "God has put me on this Earth to do this. I truly believe you give back. I have received by tenfold."

In June, Braggs ran one week-long football camp from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Port Orange, then loaded equipment into his truck and trailer to host another session at Pine Ridge from 6-9 in the evening.

"He has a lot to bring to the program that people haven't seen yet," said Joe D'Errico, a 2003 Pine Ridge graduate who has worked as a camp instructor for Braggs. "He brings strategy from a pro prospective. He's a great guy, a good coach and a good mentor."

Little guys like Swigart and 7-year-old Ryan Corrigen seem to agree.

Braggs worked patiently, and repeated himself often, as he showed campers ages 7-17 how to slide-step through a defensive drill, use a "swim" technique to get past a padded dummy posing as a blocker and then make a tackle on another dummy.

Corrigen might not have gotten all the steps right, and he was way too short to properly pin the dummy's arm with his "swim" move, but he finished the drill by flying off his feet to fling himself headlong into an enthusiastic tackle.

The tiny second-grader is a long way away from helping Pine Ridge win football games, but Braggs said helping the community helps his program.

He has attended signup meetings for the West Volusia Pop Warner program that feeds the school and agreed to serve as president of a reborn Pine Ridge booster club.

"I just shook my head on that one," Comeau said. "Coach Braggs can't say no. He's a heck of a motivator, and he gets everyone excited."

Braggs has dipped into his own pocket to upgrade a Pine Ridge program that has not had the advantage of having a strong surrounding business community to prop up expenses. His connections have campers wearing new NFL Junior Player Development mesh jerseys. Braggs has also applied for an NFL grant for money that could purchase equipment for Pine Ridge. And the Panthers' football field is getting new grass and now has a sand pit for speed and endurance training.

"We want to have a nice, level, plush green field," Braggs said. "Our guys have worked hard and they deserve that."

"It's going to take a little time, but he's going to make this program grow," D'Errico said.